FCBARCELONA.CAT

Goodbye Rodrigo

FC Barcelona has announced that the Club will not be renewing the contract of Rodrigo de la Fuente, which ran out on 30th June 2007. His final game against Real Madrid marked the end of a ten-year career with Barça.

Rodrigo De la Fuente was born on 26th November 1976 and joined Barça for the 1997-98 season from Washington State University. Rodrigo, who took his first steps in basketball at the Colegio San Agustín in Madrid and later the youth teams of Estudiantes, decided to try his luck in the USA. After two seasons at the Junior College of San Jacinto, he entered Washington State University. However, he had been tracked by Barça for some time and immediately accepted the offer to play in the ACB.

His debut

De la Fuente – one of the best defenders in the history of the ACB - made his Barça debut against Fórum Valladolid in the Pabellón Polideportivo de Pisuerga on 11th January 1998. Barça lost (78-66) but Rodrigo chalked up 9 points and 4 rebounds in the 34 minutes he was on court.

De la Fuente formed part of a team in reconstruction. Under coach Joan Montes, FC Barcelona was beginning to overcome the loss of some great players such as Epi and Jiménez. Rodrigo was definitively incorporated in the team in April, when he replaced Víctor Alemany.

Side by side with Navarro

Juan Carlos Navarro had made his own debut in round 13 of the ACB against Granada in the Palau. As such he is the only player to have shared from beginning to end Rodrigo’s Barça career.

Five of the eight players on court with De la Fuente on the day of his debut have now retired from the game: Quique Andreu, Jerrod Mustaf, Xavi Fernández, Roger Esteller and Sasha Djordjevic, without doubt the star of the team that won the Korac Cup and the ACB league the following season.

The best memory

The Euroleague title won in the Palau Sant Jordi is Rodrigo De la Fuente’s best memory. The atmosphere in the days leading up to the final made the event something very special. The team – coached by Svetislav Pesic and led on court by Dejan Bodiroga – beat CSKA Moscow in the semi-final and Benetton in the final.

Rodrigo De la Fuente was decisive in the final moments on Sunday 11th May 2003. The captain was part of the starting five (together with Dueñas, Fucka, Bodiroga and Jasikevicius) scored 11 points and took 8 rebounds in the 29 minutes he was on court. The European Cup was finally Barça’s.